In an address to the global investors sometime back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wooed them to invest in India, holding the democratic credentials of the country as the prime reason for them to do so. Contrast this with the latest report by the Sweden-based V-Dem Institute that studies the fate of democracy across the globe: “India has continued on a path of steep decline, to the extent it has almost lost its status as a democracy”. The report, in an unsparing criticism, states that the country is on the road to autocracy. V-Dem is an independent research institute set up in 2014 and has been publishing worldwide democracy report each year. 

The report is based on many parameters of democracy. It scanned factors like freedom of expression and free media; freedom of association; checks on the executive; quality of elections; and the rule of law. The country’s report card on each of these counts is distressing and deplorable to say the least. Political analysts say that the present state of freedom of expression and media is worse than the dark days of Emergency era of 1975. The government seems to be in a hurry to slap sedition and defamation charges against students, activists, academicians, journalists and general public for raising voice against its anti-people policies and programmes. Dissent has become anathema to the government; opposition parties and leaders are earning the ire of the investigating agencies and they are seemingly under pressure to act according to the whims and fancies of the government.

People’s protests and their voices are the pulse of democracy; democracy dies where protests are prohibited or ignored. The government of the day does not give a damn to the expression of people’s views as we saw during the anti-CAA protests. Agitation against anti-farmer and anti-labour laws also met with same arrogant attitude and apathy. The government uses strong arm tactics and the harshest laws to teach protesters and dissenters a lesson. The alacrity shown in booking people under sedition laws could sound the death knell of democracy sooner than expected.  

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Major pillars of democracy are shaken; Parliamentary proceedings and independence of judiciary have come into question. If the recently concluded Parliament session is any indication, the ruling party is hell-bent on pushing its agenda through the sanctum sanctorum of democracy without proper debate and discussion. Controversial Bills that are seemingly detrimental to the farmers and workers were ‘bulldozed’ through both Houses of Parliament. Another inexplicable development is en masse resignation of MLAs within few months of election and joining a rival party with diametrically opposite ideology and help it form the government. The same scenario is repeated during elections to Rajya Sabha seats to enable a particular party get its candidates win. Elections are losing their sanctity due to such back-door entries.   

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Another stain on democracy is the misuse of laws and putting people behind bars as part of an apparent agenda. Anti-cow slaughter and anti-conversion laws are just two of them which have been used and misused to spread canards against minority communities and unleash atrocities against them. The cumulative effect of all these aberrations and violations is that the country is moving on the road to authoritarianism. It is the most testing time for Indian democracy.

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